Patrick Vieira: Manchester City can escape hardest Champions League group

Manchester City face the mother of all battles to reach the knockout phase of the Champions League after being drawn in the toughest of the groups.

Up for the fight: Manchester City (Picture: Getty Images)

Patrick Vieira , City’s director of football development, admitted ‘you can’t get much worse than that’ after the English champions were pitted against the top-flight winners of Spain (Real Madrid), Germany (Borussia Dortmund) and Holland (Ajax).

Yet Vieira believes that City, who failed to get out of the group phase last season, can progress.

‘It’s a really tough group, the hardest group of all of them,’ he said.

‘But the prospect is really exciting. The players will be excited to play Real Madrid – the first time Manchester City will ever have played Real.

‘We can be confident of getting to the next stage. Last season was the first time the club has been in the Champions League so we need to learn, to improve.’

Manchester United and Arsenal have more straightforward-looking groups but defending champions Chelsea have their work cut out with Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus and Denmark’s Nordsjaelland to negotiate.

However, Fernando Torres has warned the Blues’ rivals he is a ‘better player’ for his turbulent first 18 months at Stamford Bridge.

Ahead of the Uefa Super Cup meeting with Atletico Madrid in Monaco tonight, Torres, who has scored just 15 goals since his £50million move, said: ‘I’ve become a better player. I have played in a different way than at Liverpool. I can play more outside the box, associating more with my team-mates. I gave a lot of assists last season. I can mix it more.’